Introduction

What’s the Story?

This report forms part of our Innovator Profile series, which focuses on emerging technologies that are disrupting traditional retail and fueling innovation across the retail value chain.

In this report, we profile Switcher Studio, a mobile video-creation solution that enables small and medium-sized retail businesses to implement live selling and create a new sales channel for their products. 

Coresight Research collaborated with Switcher Studio to offer insights into its mobile video-creation solution.

Why It Matters

Livestream shopping is one of our key global retail trends to watch. The live selling model continues to grow in popularity as consumers gravitate toward digital experiences and retailers leverage emerging technologies to engage their audiences. We expect that the US livestreaming e-commerce market will total $17 billion in 2022—up from an estimated $11 billion in 2021—and will grow to $35 billion by 2024, representing a CAGR of around 47%.

There are two factors that we believe will drive the uptake of shoppable livestreaming going forward:

• Livestreaming e-commerce is a relatively unpenetrated market: Although many consumers have engaged with digital retail channels, there are plenty who have yet to discover livestreaming. Coresight Research’s latest livestreaming e-commerce survey (conducted in February 2022) found that only 32.2% of US consumers have watched a shoppable livestream. This represents a huge opportunity for brands and retailers to tap an underpenetrated market.
• Fluid integration of digital platforms will bolster seamless livestreaming experiences: Our 2021 social commerce survey found that nearly 90% of US consumers who use social media for research and discovery abandon making a purchase due to a platform’s lack of in-built functionality. Integrating checkout/payment functionality for live videos shared on social media platforms will help brands and retailers increase conversion and capture more sales. 

Switcher Studio: In Detail

Headquarters

Louisville, Kentucky, US

Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland

Funding Stage

Seed stage

Total funding amount: $3.4 million

Management Team

Nick Mattingly—CEO and Co-Founder

Brandon Ramos—COO

Gabe Mondada—CTO and Co-Founder

What Problem Is the Company Solving?

In-person interaction, tactile feedback and on-site experiences have attracted consumers to brick-and-mortar malls and shopping centers for decades. While consumers today have adapted to digital shopping, many cite online shopping as being done out of convenience and necessity rather than leisure or enjoyment.

Switcher Studio’s solution enables brands and retailers to create engaging, live, digital shopping experiences that bring fun and excitement to online shopping. Switcher Studio offers a range of branding tools and creative video options to enhance livestreaming content. The company helps retailers make their digital channels more interactive, building consumer loyalty and driving higher revenue.

[caption id="attachment_146196" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Source: Switcher Studio[/caption]

Providing high-quality, shoppable livestream experiences has historically been complex and expensive due to the complicated technology and equipment required. Switcher Studio’s platform can be easily integrated with other digital platforms to perform all the necessary technical components of livestreaming. Switcher Studio uses a simple mobile user interface (UI) that provides easy access to its many features, removing the technical and cost barriers to hosting professional livestreams.

[caption id="attachment_146197" align="aligncenter" width="550"] Source: Switcher Studio[/caption]  

Competitive Advantages

1. Professional mobile branding and video-creation tools: Switcher Studio offers a full suite of video-creation tools that enable retailers to showcase their brand during livestreams using iOS devices. These tools include logos, photos, animated graphics, text, sound effects and more. Retailers can utilize any mix of customizable multimedia to make their livestreams recognizable and distinctive. Switcher Studio also offers a variety of interactive features, including tools to invite remote guests, feature viewer comments and run polls on social platforms such as Facebook Live—all of which make livestreams more engaging and often lead to longer watch times.
2. AI chatbot to facilitate live selling: Facebook Live videos made with Switcher Studio will soon allow viewers to buy directly from the livestream using Switcher Studio’s new automated AI chatbot. Retailers will be able to integrate their existing Shopify stores to showcase their product catalogs during livestreams. Viewers will automatically receive a private direct message after commenting on a product and will be prompted via Facebook Messenger to check out via the retailer’s store.
3. Multi-angle livestreaming capabilities: Switcher Studio allows hosts to pair multiple iOS devices over Wi-Fi to provide different camera angles. By sharing a URL link, users can also invite a guest from another location to join the livestream for remote interviews or conversations.
4. Highly accessible and affordable: Switcher Studio enables merchants to create professional livestreams without purchasing expensive cameras, encoders or other equipment. The company’s software is accessible via the Apple app store through iOS devices and uses a simple UI that consolidates all the necessary livestreaming tools within one app. Switcher Studio offers varied subscription types to best suit each business and a client success team to help retailers get started with live selling.

Strategy for the Post-Pandemic Market

Switcher Studio assisted retailers amid the pandemic by providing a tool that facilitated live-selling from anywhere as brick-and-mortar stores were forced to close their doors. The company has a robust outlook on the number of retailers using livestreaming as a permanent channel for reaching their audiences even as brick-and-mortar stores reopen.

While Switcher can support big-box retailers, large brands and celebrity influencers, the company’s mission is to bring the power and simplicity of its solution to small and medium-sized businesses to empower them to participate in the booming livestreaming e-commerce market.

Upcoming Developments

Switcher Studio sees 2022 as a banner year for new developments to the company’s platform. According to the company, it will enhance its offering in two key ways:

• Expanding its live selling tools—Building on the workflows and systems the company already has in place, Switcher Studio’s live selling tools will enable merchants to share their videos anywhere and enable checkout directly on their websites. This will enable businesses to own their transactions and access better first-party data and insights.
• Establishing strategic partnerships—Switcher Studio plans to build strategic partnerships with established e-commerce platforms, marketplaces and creator networks that will allow their merchant and creators to have bundled access to Switcher Studio via an API (application programming interface). These partnerships aim to make live selling an easier and more seamless virtual experience.

What We Think

Switcher Studio’s solution offers livestream production and video creativity tools that integrate easily with social media channels and online marketplaces for live selling, helping brands and retailers to build engagement among their communities.

Accelerated by the impacts of the global pandemic, we believe that digital shopping experiences will hold heightened importance through 2022 and beyond, with brands and retailers looking to adopt innovative technologies to engage consumers online as the world continues to digitalize. Retailers should pay close attention to shifting shopping patterns and use livestreaming to communicate with their customers and create engaging digital shopping experiences.

• Read more Coresight Research coverage of livestreaming e-commerce.